Abstract:
Sometimes all the heated patent activity creates friction between universities and potential corporate sponsors. Hewlett-Packard Co. spent two years trying to wrap up a deal for a nanotechnology center at UCLA and finally had to involve the head of the University of California system to break a logjam around intellectual property.

"The whole situation on patents and licensing has been very difficult for the last five or six years, and we are still not where we need to be," said Wayne C. Johnson, vice president of worldwide university relations for HP. "This is the single most complicated subject I have ever tackled professionally."